Green Mountain
Chapter 166 - 122, I am inscribed in the annals of history

Chapter 166: 122, I am inscribed in the annals of history

Inside the city gate tunnel, Zhang Zhuo stood holding his horse.

He looked towards Chen Ji, his eyes bright and spirited, "Do you have a way to find the people of the Liu Family? If you can find them, this official... this official..."

Zhang Zhuo wanted to say ’this official will ensure your meritorious promotion’. But then he thought that since Chen Ji was from the Inner Court, he, despite all his power, couldn’t offer Chen Ji any official promotion.

After pondering for a moment, he said, "Today, I only kept my official position because of you. If you can find these people as well, I’ll owe you a huge favor. In the future, should you encounter any difficulties and ask for my help, as long as it’s within my power, I will not shirk."

Chen Ji was puzzled, "There are no additional conditions, such as ’not going against one’s principles’?"

Zhang Zhuo patted Chen Ji on the shoulder with a smile, "Don’t worry, this official has no principles."

Chen Ji: "..."

Zhang Zhuo smoothed the wrinkles on his official robe and looked towards Chen Ji with spirited eyes, "Tell me, what’s your plan to find them?"

Chen Ji looked towards the dark masses of refugees and spoke softly, "They will reveal themselves."

At this moment, a dusty carriage approached the city, accompanied by over a hundred government officers.

Zhang Zhuo glanced at Chen Ji instinctively and said indifferently, "That’s Luocheng Magistrate Chen Liqin’s carriage. He must have just heard about the civil unrest and rushed here without regard for his own safety. Cough, although our Lord Prefect might be a bit pedantic, he is also one of the few genuinely good officials in our ranks."

Saying this, Zhang Zhuo changed his tone and said proudly, "Of course, next to me, Mr. Chen still has a long way to go. At the very least, I’m more approachable than he is."

The carriage drew near.

Before the carriage came to a stop, Chen Liqin lifted the carriage curtain, took an Execution Stick from a government officer’s hand, and strode over with an imposing aura, "Lord Zhang, how is the situation now?"

Zhang Zhuo said teasingly, "Mr. Chen, if we were to wait for your help now, I’m afraid thousands of Luocheng’s citizens would already be suffering."

Chen Liqin’s expression froze, "After drinking at last night’s Lu Ming Banquet, I went to bed early, I..."

Zhang Zhuo waved his hand with a smile, "It’s alright, it’s alright. The civil unrest has temporarily subsided. Mr. Chen need not blame himself. Later, Mr. Chen can take charge of the porridge distribution."

Chen Liqin breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhang Zhuo looked over Chen Liqin, "Where did Mr. Chen come from?"

Chen Liqin frowned, "Today is the Zhi Xing Academy’s attendance day. This morning, I dropped off Wenzong and Wenxiao there and also took the opportunity to visit Mr. Wang. I requested him to discipline his son more strictly. Little did I expect that, on the first day of academy, that boy Chen Ji would bring me such disgrace..."

Zhang Zhuo was taken aback and instinctively wanted to glance at Chen Ji but held himself back.

Today was Chen Ji’s first day at the academy!

Mr. Wang’s rule is to check attendance at 5 to 7 AM, and it’s already 5:45 AM!

Chen Liqin continued, "Lord Zhang, you said yesterday that Chen Ji had agreed with Prince Jing. At that time, I thought as long as he dedicated himself to his studies, other things didn’t matter. But that boy is just incorrigible, beyond help!"

Zhang Zhuo opened his mouth but didn’t say anything for a long time. After a while, he hesitated, "Could it be that young Chen Ji has something more important to do?"

Chen Liqin scoffed, "What could be more important? At first, I thought he was oversleeping, which is somewhat excusable. After all, it’s understandable for a young man to be fond of playing and sleeping. But then, I went to the Medical Hall, only to find he wasn’t there."

"Did Doctor Yao say where he went?"

Chen Liqin grew angrier as he spoke, "Doctor Yao refused to say, and his two senior brothers wouldn’t say either. I’m sure the boy went to the Gambling House again and hasn’t returned all night. He speaks of turning over a new leaf, but I think a dog can’t change its habit of eating shit!"

Zhang Zhuo, seeing that Chen Liqin’s words grew increasingly unpleasant, also showed a bit of anger, "As a father, how can you always doubt your own child? When someone said Chen Ji was a gambler, did you ever investigate thoroughly?"

Chen Liqin was perplexed, "The Gambling House came to my door with an IOU clear as day, could it be fake?"

Zhang Zhuo widened his eyes, "So, you believed it just by seeing the IOU? If someone slandered my child, I would investigate until the truth is clear. Mr. Chen, it’s fortunate you’re a Prefect, not a Judge; otherwise, how many wrongful cases would our Luocheng City Government have over the years?!"

Chen Liqin glared back, "You!"

A voice interrupted their quarrel, "Gentlemen, why don’t we first discuss the important matters."

This voice, calm as a basin of cold water, poured over their heads.

Zhang Zhuo turned his head.

But he saw that Chen Ji was still wearing his hood, his face covered, leaving only a pair of undisturbed eyes.

He felt concerned but didn’t know how to begin comforting.

However, Chen Ji simply analyzed, "Both gentlemen should hurry and arrange for the porridge distribution. Apart from the issue of delaying any further may cause more disturbances, looking at those people, they really are at the end of their tether. If they don’t eat soon, I’m afraid they won’t last much longer."

For some reason, Zhang Zhuo suddenly had a feeling that this medical hall apprentice had truly severed all his blood-related familial ties with the Chen Family.

Like a weed in the wasteland, he didn’t care where he came from or where he was going, wildly growing. Yet his act of stepping forward last night was like the heavy rain in August, grand and powerful.

Chen Liqin looked at Chen Ji, "Who is this?"

Zhang Zhuo pointed at Chen Ji, "The quelling of the civil unrest, we owe it to this colleague from the Spy Department. At such a young age, he has the demeanor of a great general."

Chen Liqin, wearing a red official robe, looked Chen Ji up and down and slightly furrowed his brows, "The Spy Department?"

Zhang Zhuo said irritably, "Mr. Chen, you really should thank him properly. If it weren’t for his acting alone as a hostage outside the city last night, our heads would not be wearing official hats now."

Chen Liqin calmly said, "I will not contaminate myself with the Eunuch Party just because they occasionally do something good. Lord Zhang, I advise you to also keep your distance from the Eunuch Party."

Zhang Zhuo laughed angrily, "Mr. Chen, sooner or later you will fall flat on your face because of your pedantry!"

After saying that, he turned around and waved his hand to summon the government officers from the government office, "What are you dawdling for? Hurry up and borrow iron pots from the nearby residents to cook porridge!"

...

...

Outside the city, sixteen large iron pots were set up, and the white rice porridge churned thickly in the pots, emitting a rich aroma that made the refugees crane their necks and stand on their toes to catch a glimpse.

However, in front of the porridge tents, they were blocked by a line of government officers, arm in arm, so that they couldn’t see a thing.

Behind the wall of people, Chen Liqin inspected each pot.

He draped the long sleeve of his official robe over his left arm and used a pair of chopsticks in his right hand to poke deep into the thick porridge, only relaxing when he made sure the chopsticks would not fall over.

Zhang Zhuo curled his lip, "Mr. Chen, it’s not bad if these refugees can have a bowl of thin porridge to eat, and here you are talking about rules like chopsticks not falling over or towels not leaking?"

Chen Liqin responded solemnly, "Lord Zhang, sticking the chopstick upright and having two meals a day are the iron rules of the court’s porridge distribution. We serve the court and must adhere to its rules. Without rules, there is no square or circle. If everyone disregards the rules, the only ones who will benefit are the powerful, and the ones who will suffer are the common people."

"Isn’t your Chen family the powerful?" Zhang Zhuo scoffed, "Do you know if you distribute porridge like that, the usabel grains in Luocheng City would last at most fifteen days. What will they eat and drink after fifteen days? If you really have the ability, then according to the law take back all the fields in the hands of the aristocratic families and distribute them to the common people, then the people would not need your porridge distribution."

Chen Liqin waved his hand, "Lord Zhang, I can’t beat you in sophistry, but I only follow the rules and laws."

As the two argued, they saw Chen Ji return carrying a bag of sand and grabbed a handful of sand to throw into the pot.

"What are you doing?" Chen Liqin grabbed Chen Ji’s wrist, his eyes filled with anger, "This porridge is being cooked for the refugees. If you put sand in it, aren’t you deliberately mistreating them?"

Chen Ji looked up at him and, without a word, struggled to break his wrist free, intending to continue throwing the sand into the pot.

But Chen Liqin shouted angrily, "Someone, stop him!"

Several government officers with Execution Sticks blocked Chen Ji while Jin Zhu, along with Spies, stood in front of Chen Ji, smiling, "What’s this? We save the official hats for both of you gentlemen, but now you greet us with the Execution Stick?"

Containing his anger, Chen Liqin said, "Let’s not talk about the official hats. These refugees are already miserable enough. Why put sand in their porridge to mistreat them?"

Jin Zhu hesitated for a moment, then looked back at Chen Ji.

Chen Ji explained, "Among these refugees are the Death Soldiers of the Liu Family. If we don’t locate them, there will be civil unrest sooner or later. But there are so many people, from their appearance, it’s impossible to tell who’s a refugee and who’s a Death Soldier."

"What does this have to do with adding sand?"

Chen Ji, holding the sack, said as he grabbed a handful of sand, "Those refugees have even chewed the bark off trees; they won’t care if there’s sand in the porridge. But those Death Soldiers are different, they’re not starving, so they will care a lot about the sand in the porridge. They might even jump out and take the opportunity to incite unrest again."

Chen Liqin shook his head, "This action does not comply with the laws of our Daning. Giving out porridge is giving out porridge; we can’t spoil the rules. Moreover, if the refugees think that the court officials are putting sand in the food to cut the relief grain, then we can’t clear our names."

Seeing him insistent, Chen Ji threw the sack to the side, "There’s another way. There’s a lot of large-leaf Ilex by the roads of Luocheng. Have the government officers gather them and put them in the pots to increase the bitterness of the white porridge."

When humans are extremely hungry, the neurons in the arcuate nucleus and lateral area of the brain become particularly active. At this time, humans’ sensitivity to sweetness increases, and their tolerance for bitterness and sourness also increases.

This is why everyone feels food is sweeter when they’re hungry.

Therefore, adding large-leaf Ilex to increase bitterness is also a method, but not as direct and effective as sand.

Chen Ji looked at Zhang Zhuo, "Lord Zhang, have the government officers go and pick large-leaf Ilex."

But after contemplating for a moment, Zhang Zhuo picked up the sack himself and began to throw sand into the pots handful by handful, "What rubbish rules, by the time we go pick large-leaf Ilex, when would that be? Those who achieve great deeds don’t fuss over trifles. If there’s a problem, I’ll take full responsibility!"

Chen Liqin stepped aside with a flick of his sleeve, "Lord Zhang indeed has the guts, but by being so careless with your reputation, who knows how history will chastise you?"

In front of the large pot, the hand that Zhang Zhuo used to throw sand suddenly stopped. After a few breaths, he grabbed another handful of sand, threw it into the pot, and then stirred the white porridge with the Execution Stick, "Let the history books write what they may; I, Zhang, have no regrets in my heart."